Incandescent electrical furnace.



No. 800,515. PATENTED SEPT. 26, 1905.

F. J. TONE.

INCANDESGENT ELEGTRIGAL FURNAGB.

APPLICATION FILED no.7. 1904.

2 SHEETS-SEEET 1.

wnmsssss INVIN'I'OR ANDREW a GRAHAM cc:v PHOTO-UYHOGRAPNERS wasumamu 01c PATENTED SEPT. 26, 1905.

P. J. TONE.

INCANDESGBNT ELECTRICAL FURNACE.

APPLICATION FILED D30. 7, 1904.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2k UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

INCANDESCENT ELECTRICAL FURNACE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 26, 1905.

Application filed December 7, 1904. Serial No- 235,876.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK J. TONE, of Niagara Falls, Niagara county, New York, have invented a new and useful Incandescent Electrical Furnace, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which Figure 1 shows in plan View a furnace embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a side elevation, and Fig. 3 is a vertical cross-section on the line III III of Fig. 1.

My invention relates to intermittently-operating incandescent electrical furnaces employed for the heating, melting, and reduction of materials in which the finished product does not undergo fusion, but is removed from the furnace in a solid form. Such furnaces are commonly used for the production of carborund um, siloxicon, or graphite and for heat ing carbon articles. In such furnaces the region of highest temperature is in the middle part of the furnace charge, and the furnace is generally constructed by building walls of loose bricks and piling the charge material within them. These walls serve merely to keep the charge in position, and being protected from the heat by the charge material they need not be highly refractory. It is necessary after each furnace run to remove the walls either wholly or in part for the purpose of exposing the furnace contents and making it possible to remove them. The walls heretofore have been torn down by hand-labor, one brick ata time, and built up in the same manner. This repeated handling of the bricks is the cause of considerable expense and difficulty, which it is the purpose of my invention to obviate. I do this by making the furnacewalls of one or more sections composed of reinforcing bodies or frames of iron or like structural material, in which the walls are assembled and by which they are held. This renders the walls permanent in character and at the same time movable and transferable, so that a large section of the wall can be removed as a single piece without disturbing the bricks of which it is composed. The sections may be rendered movable by mounting them on trucks or rollers or constructing them so that they may be lifted with a crane, or they may be hinged so they can be dropped away fromthe charge.

The reinforcing-bodies may be frames of structural material within which bricks are built, as shown in the drawings, or they may be constituted by strong wire fabric or ex* panded metal embedded in a refractory facing of concrete or the like.

In the accompanying drawings, which show the preferable construction, 2 2 are permanent end walls which support the electrodes 3, by which the current is supplied to the charge 4. The sections of the containingwalls at the side of the furnace are composed of bricks assembled in iron frames 5 and are held therein at the top and bottom by retaining ledges or clamps 6 at the top and bottom. The frames rest upon the floor, and several of them placed end to end on each side of the charge constitute the side containing-walls.

When the run of the furnace has been completed, the frames are withdrawn, preferably by means of a crane, thus exposing the finished product, which will cool rapidly and may then be removed from the furnace. The sections will then be replaced and a new supply of charged material introduced between them.

The construction may be modified. Thus, if desired, the frames 5 may be divided horizontally midway of their height, enabling the upper sections to be removed first and the lower sections subsequently.

The frames are preferably constructed with downwardly-converging sides, as shown. This is important in a carborundum-furnace, because it saves charge mixture and is otherwise advantageous. I wish to claim this converging construction whether the side be movable or fixed.

I claim 1. An incandescent electrical furnace hav ing movable containing-walls composed of reinforcing metal bodies or frames and refractory facing.

2. An incandescent electrical furnace having containing-walls consisting of structural frames lined with refractory material and movable relatively to the charge.

3. An incandescent furnace consisting of stationary electrodes, stationary end walls and side containing-walls movable relatively to the charge.

4. Containingwalls for an incandescent electrical furnace consisting of sections movable relatively to the charge, each. section consisting of a plurality of refractory units, per 7. An electric furnace having substantially manently assembled in movable structural vertical end Walls, electrodes therein, and frames. downwardly-converging side walls extending 5. An incandescent electrical furnace havbetween said end Walls.

5 ing electrodes at the ends and having separa- In testimony whereof I have hereunto set 5 ble, sectional sides. my hand.

6. An incandescent electrical furnace hav- FRANK J TONE. ing electrodes at the ends and having doWn- Witnesses: wardly-converging sides movable relatively ASHMEAD G. RODGERS,

IO to the charge. FRANK H. TAYLOR. 

